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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

I wanted to share a card I made for a recent Scramble at the Hero Arts Flickr group. Our hostess Janet asked us to use words prominently in our design.

Starting with a subtle tone-on-tone check design paper, I overstamped Hero Arts Friend Definition and then overlayed that with their Large Lotus Pattern and spread on some texture paste. When that had dried, I trimmed it on an angle, added a black frame and put it on a white card base. I also added some black enamel dots and a die-cut from Hero's Thanks Stamp and Cut set that my friend Linda had shared with me. To finish I wrapped some crinkle ribbon around the top of the card.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

It's Anything Goes week once again, and the Design Team were treated to some Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers to play with! AND they'll be providing a prize in addition to our regular prize this week - how generous is that?

I have 2 cards for you, colored with my new Aqua Markers, one very busy and the other very CAS.

Starting with a piece of watercolor paper, I white heat embossed the Tweed Background, then chose a variety of yellows, pinks, and oranges from my Aqua Markers and randomly scribbled them on that stamped panel. Next I spritzed the panel with water, which allowed the colors to blend and run together, and then I blotted the whole thing with a paper towel. This brought the white embossing out again. Next I colored 2 pinks and 2 greens directly onto my floral stamp, spritzed it lightly, then stamped it onto another piece of watercolor paper. After it was dry, I cut it out carefully. The Sending die was glued to the bottom right, and then the whole thing was popped up above the tweed background panel. To finish, I added the tiny sentiment below, stamped and white embossed on cotton candy cardstock and some tangerine sprinkles.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Barb has posted another challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Flickr group, and the theme this time is Springtime/Easter. I'm always up for pastel colors and flowers, so inspired by a pink and yellow garden of tulips I remember a few years ago, here is my entry:

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Yesterday I received both the Essentials by Ellen stamps and dies called Bold Blossoms, and couldn't wait to have a play. It was fun to cut out these lovely scribbled flowers and see where they led me.

I probably broke all kinds of photography rules for that photo above, but I really wanted you to be able to see the embossing, and taking a picture inside just wasn't doing it, so I moved outside, and loved this one which had both sunshine and shadow in it because it showed the dimension on the card. I adhered the flower die-cuts just in their centers and pulled their edges upwards a bit for interest. I used a grey sentiment because black just seemed too stark.

Here's a "regular" photo:

These dies were so fun to play with, and I'm so glad I got the matching stamp set, too; that will be next on my playlist! Thanks for your visit today!

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Here's a card I made with 2 challenges in mind. CAS-ology's theme this week is Blossom, and I knew just which of my flower stamps I wanted to use. And the AAA Cards challenge this week is to make a CAS card with lots of white space. Here's my entry for both these challenges:

Friday, March 20, 2015

Kathy's put the coloring bug in me with her 30 Days of Coloring challenge, and I'm sneaking in last minute for Hero Arts' Nature Challenge, so I pulled out an older flower stamp and made a jar of daisies! Putting flowers in a jar or a stoneware pitcher is almost always the way I arrange flowers at home.

I colored my flowers in various warm shades and fussy-cut them out, detaching them from their stems. After stamping my jar on vellum and cutting that out, I laid everything out on my background panel and then glued only the top of the jar down, so I could lift it and add the stems and leaves; then I attached the edges of the jar to the background with teensy drops of glossy accents around the edges. To finish I layered my flowers, popping 2 of them up with foam adhesive, and then added my sentiment.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

This week we have a beautiful inspiration collage, made by our Mandy, along with an Easter/Spring theme.

The Design Team are using Bazzill products. I chose this Bazzill Green with Envy variety pack of cardstock, which contains 2 sheets each of 3 beautiful greens and 3 aqua to turquoise shades. Just this range of colors said spring to me!

For my first card, I was influenced by the bird in the lower left corner. I pulled out my Wplus9 Folk Art Florals dies and made a little spring scene. Nothing says spring better than the tweeting of the birds outside my windows at this happy time of year!

We were given this assignment just about the time this Art Impressions First Bloom stamp came into the store, and I thought it represented spring beautifully, so here it is on my second card.

I colored my image with a combination of Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and colored pencils, then trimmed it out, mounted it on a Die-Namics Insta-Frame die cut from the lightest of the aqua papers, added a spring sentiment (Winnie & Walter's Big Bold Seasons Cutaways), cut from the medium shade, and added some tiny flower sequins. Then I placed the whole thing on a white card base that had been embossed with a little flower folder by Sizzix.

Here's a closer look at the adorable stamp. Around the edges, it says: "The first bloom of Spring makes my heart sing!"

It's your turn now! We have a $50.00 gift voucher to the amazing Simon Says Stamp store for one lucky random winner of our challenge!

Do you use Instagram? If you do, we'd love you to add #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there, too!

Monday, March 16, 2015

I loved both the colors and the sketch at the Fusion challenge this time! And this is also for Kathy's 30 Day Coloring Challenge, and my first time playing at Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge, which is Anything Goes this week. I needed a birthday card for a friend; hopefully this will brighten her day! Here's my card:

After stamping and coloring my flower panel I cut out a center stitched rectangle, added dimensional dots to it and popped it above the panel, adding a die-cut sentiment.

And since I used markers to color this, I'm entering Kathy's 30 Day Coloring Challenge once again. I even added a few of her signature white dots, but my hand isn't very steady for them, so I kept those to a minimum!

When I visited Theresa's blog recently her card reminded me of a Flourishes stamp that fits the bill for the Card Concept challenge, and also Kathy's 30-day Coloring Challenge. I've always enjoyed coloring, no matter what the medium.......Here's my card; I guess I"d consider it Clean and Layered:

Thanks for visiting!

A former quilter, being creative has always made me happy, but making cards allows me to express my love of color and pattern, and then share that joy with someone else when I mail a card. I try to do something creative everyday.